Kraven the Hunter is Sony Pictures' latest critical and commercial flop in its slate of "Sony's Spider-Man Universe" movies. While Venom: The Last Dance performed well enough this past October, this villain's movie is set to be a bigger flop than even Madame Web.
While this is by no means a good movie, that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of Easter Eggs for comic book fans. We're not sure how much love went into making this thing, but the filmmakers did find some unexpected ways to pay homage to the Sergei Kravinoff seen on the page.
In this feature, we're breaking down all the biggest references and cameos, including any ties to Spider-Man's world. Does the web-slinger appear and how many of his villains are part of Kraven's story? We delve into that and more.
Check out Kraven the Hunter's biggest Easter Eggs by clicking the "Next"/"View List" buttons below.
8. The Foreigner's Mentor
Among the handful of Spider-Man villains who appear in Kraven the Hunter is the Foreigner, a mercenary and assassin with the ability to hypnotise those he faces in combat.
That power carries over to this movie and the villain is hired by Rhino to kill Kraven. However, we soon learn that the Foreigner - who is Silver Sable's ex-husband on the page - has his own reasons for wanting the hunter dead.
It turns out that Kraven killed his mentor and a newspaper headline reveals it was once "Hunter vs. Hitman," an apparent nod to the villain of the same name who has frequently clashed with Spidey and The Punisher.
7. The Daily Bugle
The newspaper we mentioned above is The Daily Bugle, and it shows up at various points in this movie detailing Kraven's exploits as he wages war on the criminal underworld.
This isn't the first time a Sony movie has used the Bugle, of course, as it's also factored into Morbius, Madame Web, and the Venom franchise. Unfortunately, there are no noteworthy nods to the comics in any of the editions of the paper we could see.
Thankfully, Sony resists the temptation to connect Kraven the Hunter with the MCU by including J.K. Simmons' voice or likeness in any news reports.
6. Sergei Kravinoff's Prison Number
Kraven the Hunter isn't a movie likely to be fondly remembered for its adherence to the source material. However, we'll give it credit for including some deep-cut references to this character's comic book history.
For example, when Sergei breaks into a Siberian prison to take down one of his targets, the prisoner ID number he's given is 0864. Kraven the Hunter debuted in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #15 and that issue was dated, you guessed it, "August 1964."
Another nod to the character's past comes when it's mentioned that Kraven was born in Volgograd. That's also the case on the page and the home of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow in both the comics and MCU.
5. Kraven's Arachnophobia
Spider-Man does not appear in Kraven the Hunter. The wall-crawler is also never referenced and, despite all that talk of a Kraven's Last Hunt adaptation, there's nothing here to suggest Sergei plans to hunt Spidey down.
During the final act, the Foreigner uses a poison dart that shows Kraven his greatest fear...spiders. It mostly comes out of nowhere and is an ineffective tease to set up a conflict that wasn't going to happen even before the movie flopped.
After all, if he suffers from arachnophobia, why would Kraven even want to hunt Spider-Man? To conquer his fears once he's done killing gangsters? It makes zero sense.
4. Dr. Miles Warren
In Kraven the Hunter, it's established that a New York scientist called Dr. Miles Warren conducted the experiments that gave Rhino his powers (later, he also endows Chameleon with the ability to morph into anyone he chooses).
Comic book fans will know Warren best for being The Jackal, the crazy college professor who cloned Gwen Stacy and later Spider-Man himself. That led to the introduction of Ben Reilly and kicked off "The Clone Saga| storyline.
We don't think Sony was building to any of that here; instead, Warren was used as a quick and easy way to explain how characters in this world were able to acquire superpowers.
3. Rhino's New Powers
Miles never appears in Kraven the Hunter but we see his handiwork first-hand when Rhino rampages onto the scene. However, Sony being Sony, the villain's story doesn't quite play out in the way you'd expect.
In this movie, Aleksei Sytsevich is a mobster with a health condition who undergoes Warren's experiments to heal himself. Instead, it turns him into a rhino-man, forcing the villain to take a serum which keeps him looking human and stops Aleksei from being stuck in what proves to be his painful Rhino form.
This somewhat turns the comics on their head as that version of the character was simply trapped in a suit after an experiment went wrong. So, the parallels are there but it all ends up being something of a clusterf***.
2. Kraven's Vest Gets An Origin Story
We've already detailed the convoluted origin story of Sergei but his vest is also given a backstory in the movie before its introduction in - surprise, surprise - Kraven the Hunter's final scene.
As a teenager, a powerful lion mauled Kraven when his father attempted to find and kill the legendary beast. Returning home following Nikolai's demise, Sergei discovers that the beast has been turned into a vest (in a note to his son, Kraven's father suggests he will end up being a deadly hunter just like him...whether he likes it or not).
So, the vest Kraven wears in the comics holds even greater meaning on the screen. It's just a shame we never get to see the character don his iconic costume until the credits roll in what will be a one-and-done movie!
1. Chameleon's Comic-Accurate Look
As noted, Kraven the Hunter introduces the Chameleon. Initially, Dimitri just mimics the voices of others - Harry Styles, for example - and that him the nickname his comic book counterpart uses.
After deciding to take charge of his father's criminal empire, Kraven's brother undergoes a procedure off-screen that allows him to change his face. Between transformations, he has the white face you see above but looks more like an alien than someone wearing a mask.
Throughout this movie, Kraven refers to his brother as "Dima," an apparent nod to the pet tiger the villain has in Insomniac's Spider-Man 2 video game. It seems Sergei named the animal after his sibling, though that has little relevance here.